TRPG General Chat

@Ben hi

Hows things been going?

meh

yourself?

Just spent a few days in Central NQ at the Undara Volcano National Park.

Sounds good!

1:32 AM

I didn't even know we had volcanos in QLD

It was pretty cool though!

Apart from the kookaburras that kept stealing my breakfast! haha

haha

Lol

Ah Australia, the beautiful place where the cute animals who aren't horrifying or trying to kill you will instead steal your food

@trogdor Why not both?

There is no reason

Both can definitely be achieved

XD

To be fair I think most of the animals/wildlife there isn't trying to kill you, it just happens to be able to

Like snakes

Those aren't looking for humans to bite

Doesn't mean it never happens but yeah

probably true. it doesn't really care ... you just happen to be in the way

@Ben what were the volcanoes like?

Active?

1:39 AM

Well for snakes in particular it's more like "oh god look at that huge monster! I need to bite it if it comes any closer than that"

"it could kill me just by accidentally stepping on me in the wrong place"

@trogdor venomous snakes have got a "c'mon then! bring it! you 'n' me! Right here, right now!" attitude

Eh I mean, they aren't looking for a fight

But they won't back away from one

They are actually smart enough to know we are as dangerous to them as they are to us

No they won't

Because usually if you stumbled on them you put them in a corner

true

1:42 AM

And they also know most predators respond to running away by pouncing

Or alternatively giving chase

@BlackSpike Dormant. Have been for nearly 200k years.

But not extinct.

Not an expert on snakes ... but I learnt how to deal with the feral dogs on our local "low-income housing estate"

[eerie background noises]

Even the invasive brown tree snakes here, which are actually not very good at hurting adult humans at all, still posture when they see someone because what they are saying is "go away, don't kill me or I bite you"

@Ben overdue for an eruption? Eeep!

1:45 AM

Fun fact: the Death Adder isn't actually deadly.

@Ben Yeah, that's what they want you to think!

It's venomous, but it's not as lethal as the name implies

The Brown Snake is the one to look out for

Even though they know thier venom isn't very effective against something so much bigger than them, it's a survival mechanism to try to ward off a threat

We don't have many dangerous snakes in UK

Which is extra hard because 90% of snakes in Aus are brown

1:47 AM

Which probably partly exists because some other snake species are more dangerous

@Ben not to be confused with the brown tree snake

XD

Exactly lol

yup. quite common ... I'm a brown snake that's giving you the "c'mon then! I got this!!" .. .you don't know if it's a Deadly Killer, or merely a Painful Inconvenience ...

Yeah less venomous species probably evolved to fake it

The Daddy Long Legs is actually one of the most deadly spiders in Australia, but their fangs aren't actually long enough to pierce human skin

heh

1:49 AM

The Huntsman on the other hand is not actually dangerous at all, but they still do have a very painful bite, simply because they are large spiders with large fangs.

Daddy Log Legs is one of the few 8-legs I can abide

I actually had many Hunstman Spiders as pets when I was young

My aunt smashed her car up when she saw a Huntsman on the passenger seat!

Ugh

All for talking about snakes but I bow out with spiders

Lol

1:50 AM

@trogdor agreed. Lets get back to volcanoes

The normal reaction to that in Aus is "OI! NO FREE RIDES!"

@BlackSpike Lol

The ones in NQ are actually slow flow volcanoes. Not all fire and doom and lava explosions

@Ben aah, Hawai'i style :>

all they do is sit there and drool lava

All we got is Edinburgh Castle

1:52 AM

There are a whole bunch of them in the area, around 10-12.

@trogdor :P I wonder if brown tree snakes are edible?

One of the attractions is the Lava Tubes, where the initial eruptions filled waterways, they future eruptions burned through all the granite to create massive tunnels, over 30m in diameter

the volcanic "plug" is still there, big pillar of solid rock ... all the actual volcano got stripped away

@Shalvenay They are

I assume they are but there isn't really a lack of motivation to kill them

1:53 AM

Best grilled.

@Ben That sounds worth a visit!

@trogdor yeah, might be good to have a use for all that snake meat though ;)

I'm not usually one for geology, etc. But it was impressive

Dang, google-fu fail. "Thrud The Barbarian" ... "Careful, Thrud, that snake is poisonous!" ... "I thought it tasted funny!" ... can't find pic

Sounds like a job for @BESW

1:57 AM

In the 80s some mainland scientist tried to convince the locals here to eat the snakes, in order to keep the population in check. It was... not well-received.

Was it India that put a Bounty on some snakes, to try to reduce them ... ended up with people breeding them ...

V2Blast

oh my

Oh yeah, that sort of thing happens a lot.

@BESW yeah, bounty hunting kind of has a strong tendency to backfire in unexpected-at-the-time ways

"Free food? Sounds like an opportunity for a farm!"

1:58 AM

@BlackSpike May I console with you Conan the Librarian?

@BESW Excellent!

2:15 AM

ok, time for bed. Catch y'all on the flip side

Ciao ciao

Powerdork

2:43 AM

How are folks?
I feel good about giving a lore answer using new canon.

@Powerdork Sufficiently caffeinated

V2Blast

3:25 AM

About to stream our D&D 5e actual-play podcast in about half an hour: https://www.twitch.tv/events/wASQQYDGTRWp9jF9Rm9qeA

In a universe adjacent to our own lies a world known as Runia. This world, once peaceful and idyllic, is now threatened by a monstrous being from its prehistory. A group of adventurers known as Whiskey Company have risen up to do what they can to fight this entity known only as Nagat. They have trekked far across the mortal realms in search of the shards of Barrinoth, the Titan of Justice, in hopes of returning him to his full power.

3:52 AM

@BESW I mean, he was a (probably) white guy telling people to eat snakes I can't imagine a very good response to that

Helwar

4:08 AM

@V2Blast went in there to favorite the show in case I can watch it sometime, didn't expect the welcome :)

V2Blast

:D

4:33 AM

@trogdor Just an FYI, this got flagged :/

Powerdork

How curious.

I'd say it's because of the "white guy" part of it. There's a mod bot that looks for keywords for this kind of thing, not just other users. The downside of this is that it doesn't pick up context

Mm fair enough

4:53 AM

The quality of said bot even makes me worry about repeating the same phrase for the potential that my last comment also gets flagged. Lol

Q: What is the most damaging one handed melee weapon?

Ah yes, the siliconite Dalek-like mantra of AUTOMATE! AUTOMATE!

Hot RPG Questions

3

I'm looking for the most damaging weapon (meaning does the most damage to HP on a successful hit) that can be wielded in one hand. I am looking for an answer for both magical and mundane weapons. The only stipulations I have are that it must lack the two-handed property and must be found in one o...

5:10 AM

@BESW DELETE

5:53 AM

Question about Booming Blade.

I haven't found an opportunity to use it yet, as it requires the target to move.

So to me, this seems like it needs to be used in conjunction with other things. Disengage, or some other feat that allows for movement away from the target

CTWind

General tactic if you can get it on a rogue is to hover 15ft away, run in, booming blade, bonus action disengage, go back out to 15ft. It's also effective if you're trying to act as a 'tank' to keep enemies off of your allies, since it's harder for enemy creatures to chase. Bonus action movement spells like misty step can also be a decent pairing, or long-duration movement effects like blink.

Yeah. I have a Fighter/Sorc, and it seems like I need to use another spell in order to use this effectively :/

CTWind

Yeah, cantrips will generally not keep pace with extra attack if available, as casters are meant to be weaker when not expending resources compared to martial classes.

Rogue it's nice on because even if you don't get the followup damage due to them moving, booming blade is around on par with a mundane mainhand & offhand attack.

6:09 AM

Yeah. I am focussing more on the Sorc levelling, using the fighter as the primary level, but I just don't see Booming Blade working out

kviiri

@Ben These things are a bit two-sided --- it might seem that the cool extra damage is useless because it never fires because the targets are smart enough to not move, but on the other hand there could be a use for pinning targets in place with such a deterrent